Hallway Frame Gallery

So one more part of the living room painting project was to re-do the gallery of frames in the hallway.  I'd had silver frames up there, and I decided I wanted to put up an all white frame gallery (thank you, Pinterest).  But I didn't have enough white frames.  So I busted out some spray paint.  But then I had decided that my gallery didn't have to be perfect and could just be mixed and match silver and white.  So here's what I ended up with:

It took forever for me to figure out how I wanted it to look.

First I laid it out on the living room floor.

Then I laid it all out on our bed in the bedroom.  Then I edited, rearranged, removed.

Then I tore out pages from an old phone book so I'd have the size and shape of all the frames and laid it out on the wall.

Then I started hammering.

It took me an entire afternoon.  Seriously.  Like at least 3 hours.  And if I had it to do over again, I might edit a bit more (I'm not sure what I would take out though...)  It still seems a little crowded in spots.  I'd make the top and bottom a bit more uneven, I think, so it's not such a perfect rectangle.  But over all, it makes me really happy.

For perspective, this is the hallway that leads from the living room to the bathroom and bedrooms.  It's directly across from the bathroom, so if you pee with the door open (for example, if you're the only one home and you don't bother shutting the door because your dogs will just sit outside the door and whine for you because they are codependent little beasts), you can look at the frames while you pee.

Or you can observe them at other times, when your pants are on.  Whatever makes you feel more comfortable.

But!  If you are long distance and cannot see this in person, do not fear!  You will now get the guided tour of my hallway gallery with individual pictures of each framed piece (or you can stop reading here before your eyes glaze over from boredom).

Our Eliza sunset photo, created by Carly.  It's the biggest frame on the wall, and such a lovely picture.

A postcard I bought in Seoul, South Korea when we visited the North Seoul Tower.  I was pregnant with Eliza at the time. I like that the postcard is whimsical and colorful and a happy vacation memory.

Can you tell we're related?  My aunt, me, and my mom.  This was taken a while ago (before I got bangs), but I like any picture that features white wine.

White water rafting in Canada.

These are lots of pictures of the sky all put together.  I cut it out of a magazine.  I liked the soft blue color and I know a little something about this cloudy sky feeling.  

Another vacation photo -- at Stonehenge.

The little crafty print that I created.  I noticed a spacing error but I'm pretending to embrace imperfection.

David snapped this artsy shot of streetcars when we were in San Francisco a couple of years ago and since I'm always giving him a hard time about being a terrible photographer, I wanted to make a big deal out of a good picture he took.

Oh, the wedding.  Not only are we young and blissfully happy, the wedding car was borrowed from David's grandpa's Mustang collection, and my best friend Monica hand-lettered the sign for me and created all of the tissue-paper pom-poms (with the help of her little sister).  So it makes me think of lots of people we love.

I have another project I'm working on to go in this frame, so I just cut this head out of a magazine as a placeholder.  Because I really like her necklace.

My parents when they were engaged.  I think this photo is adorable and hilarious.

There's no story behind this except I liked it.

The brother.  This was taken ages ago, when he graduated from UT Austin.  Hook 'em horns!  I stayed at his frat house that weekend (what the hell was I thinking?  I have no idea) which was disgusting but also pretty fun.  I couldn't keep up with them, though.  After going out to the bars, they dropped me off to go to bed while they kept the party going.  

My dad and me at my wedding.

A butterfly.  Butterflies make me think of Eliza.  Legend says that if you lose a baby, their spirit may come to visit you in the form of a butterfly.  I don't always think I believe in that stuff, but every time I see a butterfly it makes me smile and feel like crying at the same time.

This one didn't photograph well, and in person it's really dark, too.  But it's a picture of a night sky and you can  just see the stars peeking out in the darkness, with trees and a fallen log in front.  

A fortune I got a long time ago.  It had been up on our fridge with a magnet and I moved it to a frame.  It's been true, even though those friends are not always whom I thought they'd be.

A tiny watercolor of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, bought from a street vendor for just a few Euros.

A shadow box containing a champagne cork from the bottle of champagne that was waiting for us in the flat we rented in Paris a couple of summers ago.  We lugged our suitcases up four flights of winding stairs, flung open the windows, and popped the cork.

The aforementioned BFF Monica, pictured at her wedding, where I was the matron of honor and she was a gorgeous bride who looks like she stepped out of old Hollywood.

View of the hallway when you walk in the front door.  I wanted Eliza's sunset to be visible the moment you step inside.

So there you have it.  Hallway gallery, finished.

Not to worry, though.  I won't be sitting around with nothing to do.  I've got my sights set on a new home improvement project.  I'm collecting supplies for it this weekend, and we'll start on it next week.  I'll keep you posted.